The Ritual (25 page)

I couldn’t help myself; I stepped into the room, too horrified to look or walk away. Behind me I heard Mior swear quietly, but then Shani made a strangled noise of distress and pushed past me. She was next to the woman with her knife in her hand and had sawn halfway through the leather strap by one of her wrists before I realised what she was doing.

“Shani, no!” I hissed. I darted towards her, grabbed her arms and dragged her away.

“Let me go!” she exclaimed, and I tried to clamp my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet. I failed, but she fell silent anyway, although her mouth was still moving.

“I’m sorry,” Mior whispered behind me, and a quick glance over my shoulder showed he was looking at Shani, not me. I understood that he had magically gagged her, and wasted no further time.

“We can’t, Shani,” I whispered urgently. “We can’t take her with us. We don’t have the time, the ability, the means. We can’t help her, all we would do is compromise ourselves. Please, it’s horrible, I know it is, but we
cannot help her
.”

She stopped struggling, but her eyes when she looked at me were pleading, and full of
hurt. “I’m sorry, we can’t,” I whispered again, knowing my own eyes echoed her pain, and with a last, defeated sigh she sagged in my arms and nodded.

I patted her hair, feeling her tremble and knowing I wasn’t too steady myself. When I looked aside I caught Zash’s frantic look, though his eyes were worried rather than annoyed. He beckoned urgently, and I pushed Shani back to the door, to where Mior held out his arms to her.

‘You alright?’ Zash signalled to me, and I swallowed hard to get rid of the bile in my throat before I nodded. He ran a quick finger past my cheek, compassion clear in his eyes, then checked the corridor before beckoning us back out.

Thankfully Shani had pulled herself together, but by the tight set of her mouth I knew her thoughts were still on the woman, and that her concentration would suffer as a result. Another thing to add to my list of worries.

Then, ahead of us, Zash signalled to me, ‘Found it.’

It took a heartbeat to register, then I jerked up straighter. ‘Water?’ I asked.

In response he pointed to the door at the end of the corridor. It looked worn and battered, much older than the other doors around us, and I assumed that it was a door to an older, more central part of the monastery. That alone would have marked it as the right door, but to top it off it also had a water drop etched into its surface.

I turned around and beckoned to Mior, who still had an arm around Shani to comfort her. When he walked up to me I pointed at the door, and his eyes opened wide.

“Get to it,” I whispered, and pushed Shani after him. I nervously kept checking back the way we had come until the sparkle behind me indicated that the door was now unwarded, then moved up as Zash opened it. To our great disappointment it showed another corridor, but we knew we were close, and tried to increase our pace.

The path was straight now, and after only three more doors we entered a cold stone room with a crude basin hacked into the granite floor. There was a small crack in the bottom of the basin and it was about half full, and I wondered how slowly the water rose up, since there didn’t appear to be an overflow anywhere.

‘Watch door,’ Zash gestured to me, then pulled out his dagger and sliced it quickly through the palm of his hand. He dipped his other hand into the basin and trickled the water over the wound, but nothing happened. He frowned and tried again, but still nothing happened.

“Drink it,” Mior whispered, and with a nod Zash complied.

It did the trick – I watched in horrified fascination as the edges of the wound pulled together again and left his hand whole.

Zash didn’t waste any more time – he quickly fetched a phial out of his pocket, filled it from the basin and stoppered it. The phial then went into a padded wooden box and into his loot bag, and he stood up from his crouch. ‘Go,’ he gestured, and I darted back out the door.

It was easy enough to retrace our steps, and although we moved faster this time, we were still being extremely careful and checked every direction before moving. Zash also insisted that Mior and Shani re-ward every door they had unwarded on the way in, hoping to give the impression that we had never been here at all. I doubted we would succeed in that – we had unlocked too many doors and disengaged their traps to boot, but arguing with Zash would take more time than it took the sorcerers to do their work, so I kept the peace.

We couldn’t have been more than two corridors away from the outside wall, and I was beginning to think that we would pull off our heist, when disaster struck.

Zash, still leading the way, peered around a corner and quickly pulled his head back. ‘Man,’ he signalled to me. ‘Need sleep.’

I nodded and poked Mior, who was now looking at me for the translation. Both he and Shani knew a few basic gestures, but they had never bothered to learn the full intricacies of thieves’ cant, so I beckoned his head towards me.

“Man around the corner,” I said succinctly, and he nodded his understanding and moved forward. He raised his hands and took another step, into the new corridor, and loosed the spell, then cursed audibly and did it again. And again.

“Shit, he’s being blocked,” Shani breathed, and ran over to him. She joined him in full view and added her own spells to Mior’s barrage, but their opponent was either extremely well-trained at counterspells, or was an absolute master sorcerer. I didn’t need to signal Zash to make the situation clear, and both of us rounded the corner just as the man bellowed for help.

“Try to gag him,” I whispered urgently, hoping against hope that no one had heard him, but Mior shook his head.

“Can’t,” he said through gritted teeth. “Blocks everything.”

“Keep him on the defensive then,” I said, whirling around when I heard a door slam against the wall behind us and saw it belch out a stream of confused-looking monks in the same grey-blue robes we’d seen everyone wear so far. At the same time Zash took out the sorcerer with a flying tackle. Whether it was luck or skill I didn’t know, but the man hit his head against the wall and slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Run!” Zash shouted needlessly, because all three of us already were. The monks had by now realised we were intruders, and came after us in hot pursuit.

Mior and Shani pelted past Zash, who was scrambling up from the floor, and I held out my hand to help him as I followed. He gave me a quick grin as he grabbed it and pulled himself up, then he propelled me ahead of him and started running as well.

We were nearly at the exit now, all of us running at full tilt, and as I rounded the next corner I could see the windows to the outside, and the greying dawn sky behind it. It gave me an extra burst of speed and a glimmer of hope that we might make it.

Then, as we tore through the final corridor, I heard a sudden clank and the rattling of chains, and glanced over my shoulder in confusion. I caught a glimpse of one of the monks next to a lever on the wall, and his triumphant grin caused a chill around my heart.

Sure enough, when I looked ahead to the last corner, the one to the small corridor leading to the outside door, I saw a portcullis slowly starting to drop down. Mior and Shani were almost at it, and with a quick stab of relief I saw them duck and dart underneath it. They were safe.

It was two-thirds down when I reached it and turned around, and with a cold, sinking feeling I realised that Zash wasn’t going to make it. He was limping, and although the monks were still far enough behind us, the portcullis would be closed by the time he reached it.

“Go!” he shouted at me, gesturing furiously. “Fucking go!”

I hesitated only a moment more, then with a sob I dropped to the floor, rolled under the falling metal spikes and shot back upright just as they sank into the matching holes in the floor. I started pulling at the gate, trying to lift it back up, but of course it wouldn’t budge. Then Zash reached me and I grabbed for his hands through the bars.

“Go,” he said again, squeezing my fingers. “Take this and run.” He stuffed his loot bag through one of the openings and I accepted it with numb fingers.

“Zash…” I said, my voice thick with despair, and he grabbed my head through the bars, pressed his face up against them and kissed me, quick and hard.

“Will you please fucking go?” he asked. “Don’t worry about me, just run.” I felt hands plucking at my shirt, pulling me away, and the numbness grew as I let them.

“I’ll come for you,” I promised him. “I’ll get you out. We’ll get you out.”

“Get yourself out first. Go!” he said again, and my vision blurred with tears as I saw him be pulled away by a mass of grey-clad arms.

It was my last view of him, and it was burnt into my retina for a long time afterwards.

CHAPTER TEN

I did not remember how I got to our camp. I simply registered at some point that I was there, that I was held tightly by two people and that Shani was whispering soothing words with her chin on top of my head. It took a while longer before I understood that she did it for Mior’s sake as much as for me. He was clinging to us both, and I realised that he was as frantic as I was – Zash was his twin after all. It gave me the strength to pull myself together and to stop crying. In Zash’s absence someone had to take charge, and logic dictated that it would be me.

I tried to tell myself that Zash was a master thief, that he would get out by himself, but I soon accepted that there was no way I could convince myself of that. This wasn’t a simple prison, it was a highly fortified and protected building which we had entered with deliberate intent to steal its most prized asset, even if that asset replenished itself. I didn’t know what they would do to Zash for that, but my mind appeared to be horrifyingly inventive in conjuring up things that they
might
do.

“We need to get him out,” I managed to say, still trying to steady my shuddering breathing.

“Of course,” Mior agreed morosely. “How?”

“We’ll find a way,” I replied, refusing to think about the fact that the monks were forewarned now, and that we couldn’t possibly get back in undetected.

“We can’t move yet,” Shani said. “They’re still trying to find us.”

That startled me into full alertness. “They’ve tried to follow us?”

She looked at me with sad eyes, shaking her head. “You’re not thinking straight, are you? Of course they have. They saw all of us, they know how many people to look for. I’ve heard them go past the canyon twice so far, and the only reason they haven’t found us is because I muffled you both, and we’re well hidden here.”

I felt ashamed. No matter my despair at the loss of my lover, there was no use in losing my head over it, or I wouldn’t be able to help him. I disentangled myself from Mior and Shani’s embrace and tried to get my brain into gear.

“Right, so we need a plan,” I said, dragging my hair out of my face and scrubbing my tears away. “We’ll have to wait for them to stop looking for us, and in that time we can take stock of what we have, what our options are.”

“We have none,” Mior said dully. “There’s no way we can get him out.”

“Yes we can,” I insisted. “I refuse to believe that we can’t.”

“How?” he challenged me, but then he sagged. “He’s lost, Rin. Lost.”

I looked at him and saw the despondency in his face, and drew a breath to protest again. Then I reconsidered, trying to put myself in his shoes. How would I feel if Shani had been captured? Or more precisely, how had she felt that time when I had been caught? I had never seen her so relieved as when Naerev brought me back to her, and she had looked like she hadn’t slept in a week, even though I’d only been gone half the night.

Like me, Zash had always been the one in charge, the one to plan, the one to tell Mior what to do. They had never spent any length of time apart, and with that guidance gone Mior was floundering. I was sure he would be eminently capable of making decisions and planning ahead, but he had never needed to. It made perfect sense when I analysed it like that, and I understood that he needed guidance, needed someone to take charge and snap him out of his anguish. I decided that making him angry might work.

Before he could cotton on to what I was about to do I sat up and slapped him hard in the face. Shani gasped, but I snapped, “Stop blubbering and pull yourself together!”

He gaped at me and I slapped him again, this time on his other cheek. “Are you just going to sit here and lament? If I say we’re getting him out then we’re getting him out. Do you want to argue with me? Do I need to slap you again?”

There it was, anger flaring in his eyes. “Just try it,” he hissed. “I’ll burn your fucking hair off.”

“That’s better,” I said with a smile, sitting back again. He opened his mouth in confusion and I grabbed his hand. “I need you, Mior. I can’t get him out on my own; I’ll need you both to help me. I can’t have you sit here and give up before we’ve even started. Remember what Zash always told me.”

He stared at me for a heartbeat longer, then smiled back. “No defeatism?”

“No defeatism. Come, let’s plan.”

*   *   *   *   *

For two whole frustrating, agonising days we could not move. The monks were still scouring the area, but luck was with us and they did not discover our hiding place.

That was about the only positive thing about those two days though. We talked, argued, plotted, discarded and never got anywhere near thinking up a viable plan to rescue Zash.

It was midway through the third day when we realised that we’d not heard any more search parties pass by, and concluded that they must have finally given up on trying to find us. I tried to verify this by carefully scouting the area, and when I ventured to the original observation point from where we had first studied the monastery I noticed that there were now four guards stationed above the front door, looking out over the bridge. I scanned the rest of the building for the other guards, and my heart nearly stopped in my chest.

At the nearest corner of the monastery’s hexagon, to the right of the bridge, a wooden beam stuck out that hadn’t been there before. From it hung a metal cage, and in it I could see a slumped figure. A slumped figure in black, with black shaggy hair. I stared at Zash for nearly a quarter measure, but in that time I didn’t see him move even once, and my worry grew to sickening proportions.

Finally I could stand it no more, and I bolted back to Shani and Mior, bursting into angry tears as soon as I reached them. They shot onto their feet in consternation, and I paced around in fury as I reported to them.

“They’ve stuck him in a gibbet,” I ranted. “He’s in a fucking metal cage and he’s not moving. He can’t be dead, Gods, don’t let him be dead!”

Mior’s arms clamped around me, tight enough that I had difficulty breathing, but it comforted me and I managed to calm down a little. “I want to see,” he said hoarsely, and I nodded, taking his hand.

Then Shani spoke. “Be careful, I know why they’ve put him there.” We both stared at her, and she gave us a grim look. “Bait.”

“Shit, you’re right,” I breathed, sagging to the ground. “They want to draw us out.”

“Exactly, so be triple careful. The fact that we’re still free is our biggest advantage.”

“It’s our only advantage,” I amended morosely before looking at Mior.

“I still need to see,” he said, and I saw the anguish in his eyes.

“You will, but sit down a moment,” I said, patting the grass. “We should plan everything we do from now on. We can’t leave anything to chance if there’s a way of avoiding it. To start with, I think we shouldn’t split up again. Together we are stronger than alone, so if we go we go together.”

“I agree,” Shani said. “What’s the situation at the monastery otherwise?”

“They’ve stationed four guards permanently above the door. I haven’t seen them move, but I reckon one of us should always keep an eye on them and on the bridge.”

“I’ll do that,” Shani offered, and saw Mior squeeze her hand in gratitude.

“Thanks,” I said. “Now, I can’t believe that they’ve completely given up on finding us, which makes me think they’ve stationed guards further out as well, to try and catch us out. I didn’t see any, but I’d bet my life on it. I’ll feel a lot better if we find them first.”

“But we don’t know how many there are,” Shani pointed out.

“Doesn’t matter,” Mior said. “Every one we find will be one less to worry about. You say you didn’t see any when you went to scout? Did you go straight to the monastery from here?”

“Pretty much,” I said. “There can’t have been anyone there, or they’d have caught me on the way back. I wasn’t exactly paying attention.”

If Mior heard the chagrin in my voice he chose to ignore it. “Right, so if you didn’t see anyone, my guess is they’ll be to the north of us. They probably think we came from that direction, and that we’re hiding near the road.”

“Makes sense,” I agreed. “Let’s go look then.”

*   *   *   *   *

Within two measures we discovered three guards, because whatever the monks did all day in that fortress, they did not train in stealth and hiding techniques. I suppose they did what they thought was their best, but they clearly had no experience in sitting still for long periods of time. All three of them gave themselves away by the scuff of their boots against the rocks or the coughs they tried to muffle.

Mior magically silenced them all, then without even a moment’s hesitation he killed them by slitting their throats. He had warned me that killing was the only option and had volunteered for the job, and the icy calm with which he did it could have frightened me had I not known that he was venting his anger, frustration and near-despair about Zash on the monks. Besides, if he hadn’t done it I knew I could have, even though I had never killed anyone before in my life. They had put my lover in a cage, and they would pay for every heartbeat he suffered in there.

We could not find any more guards, so made our way to our vantage point, from where I pointed with a trembling finger to the gibbet. Zash still did not move, but I thought he was slumped in a different position from earlier, which gave me cautious hope that he wasn’t dead.

“Bastards,” Mior said hoarsely beside me. “Godsdamned fucking bastards. I hope they burn in Eternity for this.”

“Could you levitate him out?” I asked. “If we could somehow get that cage open, could you get him here?”

He shook his head. “I told you, the most I can levitate is a wooden bar, or a small rock. He’s too heavy, I’d drop him like a stone.”

“And if you and Shani work together?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Rin,” he said, looking at me with a sad smile. “We can’t just add our power together. Even if we could, it’d still not be enough to lift him.”

I swore in frustration, then smacked my fist against the rock. “There’s got to be something we can
do
for him!”

He slipped his arm around my shoulder. “I don’t know, but I’m not leaving until I know he’s alive,” he said quietly, and I nodded my agreement.

We settled and waited, only moving to change whoever was watching the monastery. Then, finally, Mior yanked at my foot. “He moved!” he said in an excited whisper, and I took my eyes off the guards.

“Go, I’ll watch,” Shani said, taking my position, and I slid down to where Mior was crouched.

“There, he moved his arm again!” he said, and I grabbed his shoulder when I saw it too.

“He’s alive,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “Thank the Gods, he’s alive.”

Mior squeezed my knee, then we both froze when Zash drew up straighter and lifted his head. He looked to the side and spat, and I gasped at the dark glob that arced down into the ravine. “Was that blood?”

“I don’t know,” Mior replied, sounding frustrated. “It’s so hard to see from this distance.”

Zash shifted again, carefully manoeuvred a leg through one of the of the holes and stretched it, then did the same with the other. We watched it avidly, unable to do anything else, until Mior squeezed my knee again, hard. “I think his arm’s broken,” he said.

I looked, but couldn’t see it. “What makes you think that?”

“He keeps moving everything but his right arm. Look how he keeps it close to his body like that. If it isn’t broken, there’s definitely something wrong with it.”

I looked again, and this time I saw what Mior meant: any time he moved, Zash was favouring his right arm. “If it’s broken it’ll need treating fast, or he’ll never use it again,” I said. “The Gods only know how long it’s been like that already.”

“So how do we do that then?”

“We’ll have to use the healing water,” I said, unable to think of anything else.

“What?” Mior stared at me in horror, and I gestured impatiently at Zash.

“You can’t levitate him out, but you can levitate the water over to him. He doesn’t have to drink all of it, but he needs to be whole and healthy for us to be able to help him.”

“You have a plan to get him out of there then?”

“No, but one step at a time. He’s suffering, Mior. Can you sit here and watch it? Because I can’t.”

“No, but that water… We need it, Rin. We can’t afford to waste it.” He shifted nervously, and I wondered what had him so worried that it overrode his concern for his brother.

“I already said, he doesn’t have to drink all of it, and he knows the importance of it as well as you do. Even if one tiny sip doesn’t cure him completely, it’ll help,” I reasoned.

He gave a grudging nod and pulled his backpack towards him, which held all the items we had gathered so far. “I’ll wait ‘till dusk then. I can’t do it in the dark, but to do it in full daylight would be too obvious.”

“That’s fine,” I said, patting his arm, and we fell quiet as we waited for the light to die down.

*   *   *   *   *